


Snow Halation!

by Donnieambie_Dawn



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Bilingual Sky, Homesickness, I Tried, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Lu tropical trade 2020, Lu writing and art summer exchange 2020, Not Beta Read, Sky (Linked Universe)-centric, fluffy-ish i think, unedited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:14:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26230981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Donnieambie_Dawn/pseuds/Donnieambie_Dawn
Summary: Lu writing and art summer exchange 2020 gift-----Sky gets homesick and Wild attempts to lift his spirits with a surprise holiday!
Comments: 1
Kudos: 50





	Snow Halation!

**Author's Note:**

> Gift for adrien#0323 on discord :) I hope you like it.
> 
> just as im typing this i realized i wrote a winter fic for the summer exchange  
> (ㆆ_ㆆ) //

Snowflakes tinged the air in light periwinkle hues as they danced towards the birds that had already flown south. The man under the apple tree looked as dead as the reaching branches, cape snug so tight over his frame that red indentions plastered his neck and wrists with a vengeance as strong as the cold that seeped into his bones. Skyloft had never been this cold in the winter, even on the highest islands in the hylian archipelago; at least there were ample loftwing feather vests and sheepwing shawls to wear back at home. Here in the cold blue evening, the unfamiliar tinges seeped into his skin and leeched away any remaining fight in him. After all, today was supposed to be-  
  
“Are you ok?” Wild said, walking towards Sky with the slow meandering gait of a man who’s had his kneecaps shattered more times than Sky had flown.   
  
“Yeah, I’m fine.”  
  
“You fine enough to help me with foraging?” He didn’t look up from the sheikah slate as he asked, fingers smoothing the screen with a dilapidated finger. “I’m running low on chillshrooms—we can pick up some hearty truffles too—but I want to stock up on these before we hit the desert.”  
  
Sky shuddered. What he would give to be in a desert right now.  
  
“You up for it? Sky? Hullo?” It took a few seconds for Sky to realize that Wild was erratically swatting invisible mosquitoes around him. “Get your hands out of my face, I’m fine!” Sky’s voice had no malice when he uttered those words, though the irritation was apparent. Wild shrugged him off and pulled Sky to his feet, stooping slightly to the ground when his vision grayed under the oppression of his heart.  
  


“Lets go.”  
  
And then they were off. Sky lagged behind as Wild explained to their unofficial leader, that yes they were getting chillshrooms, that no they were not out of their mind, and yes they needed hearty truffles for this meal so would you just let us go get them?  
  
“Unless you don’t want a warm dinner tonight?” Wild asked smugly as a gust of wind blew into camp. Warriors bundled Wind closer to himself, practically swimming in scarves and spare tunics. Hyrule took to doing push ups to stave off the cold. Somehow, Legend was fine.  
  
“I don’t need pants and I certainly don’t need a sweater.”  
  
“Whatever, bunny boy.”  
  
Legend scowled at Twilight, and before they could bear witness to one of their epic animal scream-offs, Wild grabbed Sky with a bony wrist and practically pulled him into the undergrowth.  
  
“Come on! Before one of them decides to tag along!” Wild whispered through his teeth, and Sky could feel the red angry rawness of his own throat.  
  
“Why? Would that be a bad thing?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
Wild stopped dragging him as soon as they were out of earshot of the camp, but didn’t stop walking until they were out of the wolf’s range too. Then he turned to Sky and scoffed.  
  
“Spill.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“I can tell something is bothering you, and I assume that everyone else can too. No one else was going to comment about it; you hero types are all the same.” Wild rolled his eyes, and Sky tried not to let his true feelings show, both before and after Wild’s statement.  
  
“Wild, you’re a hero too. You’re a knight.”  
  
“ _Was_ a knight, and that was a long time ago. I’m not a hero.” There was a pause. “But that’s beside the point. What’s up?”  
  
Sky’s eyes drooped, mouth turning crooked in a slight quiver before he squeaked out. “I guess I just miss home.”  
  
Wild sat down in the snow banks as if they were a cushy flowerbed, and Sky parroted him out of habit. Sky cringed as his backside was soaked by wet snow. “GHAA! COLD! COLD!” He whimpered.  
  
Wild laughed—a rare sound—and continued to play in the snow, cheeks tinged red and blue where the ripping scar met the pull of his eye. “Do you want to talk about it? Here, wear this.” He tacked on the slate and pulled out a light crème coat. “It’s snowquill, rito made. Try it.” He threw it to Sky, who quickly melted under the fake warmth the slate had given it.  
  
“Like clothes from the dryer, right?”  
  
“You know what a dryer is?” Sky’s eyes widened. It had taken a while to deduce that everyone had different states of technology; despite the theory that tech was supposed to improve with time, somehow it had gotten worse. Wild nodded and sky smiled in response, finding a lapse in conversation.  
  
“So do you want to talk about it?”  
  
Sky gave a breathy sigh, hot air whishing away in the winds. “Not really. I guess I just. . .” he fidgeted with the loftwing feather on his hip, pulling the gentle fabrics of his sailcloth over the snowquill tunic tighter and tighter, until a hand on his wrist stopped him. “Hey.”  
  
“Is this what you wanted me for?” Sky asked, suddenly devoid of energy, voice tired and lounge lagging. He just wanted to sleep today, maybe wake up for dinner and just think. Irrationally, he was getting angry and stressed, and he knew that Wild could tell.  
  
“No, I really need those shrooms. And don’t tell anyone, but today’s a special day.” Wild winked, and Sky’s eyes widened. “you mean-”  
  
“yep! It’s apple pie night!”  
  
“Sweet!” Sky exclaimed, hoping that the disappointment wasn’t evident on his tongue.   
  
“So you’ll help me?”  
  
Sky’s knights resolve set in, and he firmly nodded.  
  
“Alright then! Hang on tight!”  
  
And before he knew it, Sky was being pulled. Or maybe he was being pushed? It was hard to discern over the roaring of blood in his ears, the prickling sensation of his arm hairs standing on end before they were plucked out, one by one. He could feel his body unravel like gift paper, falling away in ribbons. He had no eyes, and yet could see everything. He-  
  
He vomited.  
  
Wild rubbed slow circles on his back, and somewhere in the back of his mind he could hear Wild asking if he was okay. There was a hot thermos in front of him; some liquid that tasted like oranges and apples snaked down his throat, burning all the way.  
  
“Sky?”  
  
“Var you okey?”  
  
“Sky, buddy? Sky?”   
  
Sir, var you okey?”  
  
Sky finished spitting and glanced up at his savior, meeting a pair of bright golden eyes. A loftwing?  
  
“V loftwing? But I Vm not e loftwing?” She stuttered—because oh no he said that out loud didn’t he?  
  
Standing up straight, he gazed upon the figure of a feathered woman, beak curved and feathers tinged a light yellow from the halation around her. She looked almost angelic, with her large, blue tipped wings; Sky’s face started to heat as he realized what he had called her.  
  
“Sorry ma’m, I didn’t mean to say anything. I’ll be on my way-” He tried to back away, but she reached out with a sturdy wing, staring at his eyes like they held the secrets of the universe.  
  
“You var not e hylien. Va von bishadk en vaxian? Ven, ven ila a vaxian a matre a?”  
  
For a second, time didn’t exist. There were no portals coming to sweep him into battle from under his bed. There were no assassins or warriors or monsters. For a second he was back home, talking with the potions vendor in the marketplace, listening to the sounds of the day gone by without a care in the world. Then his eyes widened as he realized what she had said.  
  
“Vax! En a villa a matre von bidshak en vaxian!” Sky exclaimed hurriedly, shoving his fingers into his chest. “Von etr e?”  
  
Wild’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know what’s going on with you two, but _surprise!_ ” Wild threw his hands out into the air, drawing attention to the copious amounts of paper-craft decorations and wooden wind-chimes hanging aloft. Young rito-folk ran and flitted from the tops of buildings, toting noisemakers and brightly colored candies. Adults hung back in blanketed lofts, looking over the festivities with half empty glasses of hot cocoa and full hearts. It was the zeda festival—Wild’s second one since waking up—and it was always a wonder to see the bright banners and rampant joy that came with the season.  
  
“I don’t know if this’ll make you feel any less homesick, but. . . guys?”  
  
“Neme, Vinche.” She stuck out a wing and Sky shook it, a lone feather escaping on the wind.  
  
“Vasx en a anan etr vaxian, von ne a vi. . . vi-”  
  
“Vitan.”  
  
“Vitan! Oi!” Sky clasped his hands together and smiled brightly, and even though the harsh winds of Wild’s winter still seeped into their bones, Sky didn’t seem to notice.  
  
“Guys?”  
  
_“I can’t believe Skyloftian culture has survived this long! Though there are some odd changes—I think those chimes are supposed to be red. But this is so cool!”_ Sky twirled from where he stood, cloth fluttering out behind him as he swung to take in everything at once. _  
  
“Yes!” _She laughed, something hearty with a squawky undertone, _“It wasn’t always like this though. Would you believe me if I said that the Zora were originally the ones to keep and uphold these traditions?”  
  
“The fish people?!”  
  
_“Guys? Are you with me?” Wild asked again, mouth agape as Vinche and Sky blabbered on aimlessly.  
  
_“I don’t think they would appreciate you calling them fish people.”  
  
“Sorry about that. And sorry I called you a _loftwing.” Sky rubbed his neck sheepishly, averting his eyes.  
  
“I heard loftwing! That’s one word I recognize!”  
  
_“It’s more than okay. I know I have an oddly shaped beak-”  
  
“Your beak is wonderful! I’ve just never seen a rito before.”  
  
“well I’ve never seen a skyloftian hylioid, so that makes us even.”  
  
“I don’t even know how you tell the difference.”_  
_  
_ Unknowingly they began to wander down the pine bridge, leaving a confused Wild behind.  
  
“I guess I’m going shopping.” He said to no one in particular. Leaning over the side of the landing, he pulled out his paraglider and sailed down to the shopkeep.  
  
_“This is amazing!”_ Sky repeated for the 15th time that day, engaged in a mesmerizing dance with fallen bits of snow and feathers on the wind. _“What did you call it again?”  
  
“the zeda festival.”  
  
_Sky grinned, eyes wide and twinkling in the evening lantern lights. _“I think you’ve lost something over the years.”  
  
“Like what?”  
  
“This L!”  
  
_Quick as he could, Sky flung the top of the rito’s hood over her face and started to book it down the stairs.  
  
_“Oh no you don’t!”  
  
_Within a few seconds she was free and airborne, the gust of wind from her takeoff disturbing the peace around her as people cried out in indignation.   
  
“ _Get back here!”  
  
“MAKE ME!”  
  
_They laughed in the chase, white wings furled behind him as he took the leap over the railing into the great beyond, soaring over a sea of green and blue and soft whiteness.  
  
_“That was a dirty trick!”_ Vinche pouted as they cut through the open air. At her exaggerated expression, Sky could only laugh.  
  
_“Sorry, I panicked.”  
  
“Your first thought when you panic is to jump off the railing?”  
  
“Did it all the time back home. Used to help me calm down, back when I was still flying.” _Sky’s face grew slightly somber as he angled his cape downwards towards the frozen lake, falling in soft, gentle loops around a spire like a leaf in the wind. _  
  
_She touched down next to him, and Sky’s eyes widened as he realized that he had no way back up. “ _Are we stuck here?”  
  
_Vinche laughed. _“No, here, let me carry you.”  
  
_She kicked herself into the air and swept over Sky, talons ready to ensnare, but as soon as she grasped him, the resistance knocked her over.   
  
_“Ghaa! You’re heavy!”  
  
“Are you okay?”  
  
“I’m fine.” _She dusted herself off, nervousness apparent on her face, “But we may be stuck here for a while.”  
  
➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶  
  
“Sky!” He screamed out into the night, not at all bothered by the stares he was getting in return. “Sky! Where are you?! We have to leave!”   
  
Dammit, they had stayed out too late! He forgot that the clock always jumped ahead when they travelled, and now he was going to pay dearly for it. He can already see Twilight’s tanned leather gloves, perfect for slapping, or that blue stick that Legend liked to hit him over the head with every time he was being “reckless.”  
  
He grabbed at his head. Oh goddess he can already feel the concussion.  
  
“Link? You ok?”  
  
He turned abruptly to view the shopkeep he had been conversing to moments prior. Amelia, with her wings of pink, teal, and velvety red, had always been something of a topic of conversation in the village, though Wild cared less about what she looked like and more about her Tuesday bomb arrow sales. They had quickly become friends back when Wild was still young and naïve; he can vaguely remember her wing colors in between the bouts of sickness and delirium that came with his first case of snow sickness.  
  
She tiptoed over to him, grabbing the rail as she strolled. “You need help looking for someone? Sky, right? Wetch thet step, it’ll give out on you.” She said casually as they walked up towards the village elder.  
  
“Yeah, his name is Sky. He’s a hylian around my age, with a white cape and colorful-ish clothes. They’re not very stylish though, but don’t tell him I said that. Anyways, that’s not the point!” Wild flustered as he sidestepped the faulty stair, the one next to it giving a groan of protest as it decided to complain about the added weight.  
  
“Hylian? That little skylofting child?”  
  
“What?”  
  
She laughed at him as if to ask if he was stupid or blind, covering her face with a wing. “Teke a close look vt the w-ahll-s, Link.” She pointed to the sides of the village’s main spire, decorated with bright paints in what Wild could now discern as a series of images.  
  
A figure in green and white, surrounded by red and accompanied by blue.  
  
Villages and castles marred with mud and ruin.  
  
Islands floating in the great abyss, delicately placed over fields of rolling white cotton.   
  
By the time they reached the top of the spire, Wild was to engrossed in the painted story being told to listen to Amelia, though he did jump when the entirety of Rito Village seemed to yell all at once.  
  
“Five!”  
  
A rumble.  
  
“Four!”  
  
The bottom of the lake glowed a slight orange. The tell-tale sign of fire.  
  
“Three!”  
  
Poppers went off and firecrackers were thrown off the edge of the spire in an act that even Wild would consider reckless, though the colors that ricocheted off of the icy mirrors proved to be a sight well worth the arson risk.  
  
“Two!”  
  
He could feel it in the air.  
  
“ONE!”  
  
He braced himself.  
  
A loud bang shot out from below, and rumbled all the way up the top of the spire, shaking houses and hearts alike. A wall of red light shot its way into the sky, before bursting into the stars.  
  
“VONNA ZEDA!” Amelia screamed from next to him, almost going over the edge in an attempt to get closer to the bright lights. All around him he could hear people repeat the statement with childish joy and burning excitement.  
  
Another firework, this time cobalt blue, came to join its brother in the sky, and Wild was transfixed.   
  
“You kids cleer the wey!”  
  
An older white rito shouted at him before nosediving off the edge. “We’ve got v code 35!” His voice carried over the screams on the wind as he plummeted down, down into the fiery pits. A few other rito startled when hearing this and jumped into action, disappearing off the edge.  
  
“Code what?!” Wild asked, a tinge of panic on his lips.  
  
“It meens someone is down there, Link. Usually it’s a hetchling that cennot fly without help.” She flinched instinctively at the next firework, light illuminating the area with bright blue hues. “They’ll be fine. Look.”  
  
Gliding up into the heavens with the gales of the rito was a blackened figure that was undoubtedly Sky. He gave a whoop before doing a backflip in the air, the lights dimming for a second before an emerald firework supernova bathed them all in an artificial glow.  
  
“Sky. . .”  
  
Wild battled with himself. On one hand, he could teleport back to the group and tell them about playing hooky to attend a festival cross country without their permission.  
  
Sky gave another cheer in the air, before the winds of the rito gently guided his sailcloth to the permafrost covered Revali’s landing. “Again!” He cried in jubilation with both hands in the air; the rito around him laughed as if in on some great inside joke.  
  
He could tell on himself, or he could watch as Sky’s face lit up with every firework. As Sky’s new friend handed him a slice of apple pie and glass of hot cocoa, and hatchlings gathered in clusters to gawk at “Zeda’s love”—  
  
Wait? What?  
  
Amelia laughed as she viewed the look of confusion on his face, “Heve you connected the dots yet?”  
  
“I lost my brain 100 years ago, please, do tell.”  
  
A rito in red and gold sauntered up the steps with a set of complementary sparkling drinks, and Amelia took time sipping hers, watching the anticipation build in Wild’s eyes.  
  
“It’s the first Zelda’s birthdey. V celebretion of the goddess vand her mortel form.” She explained with a twinkle in her eye, leaning over the banister to get a better look at the skyloftian below them, engaged in a story with the hatchlings from earlier. One scoffed and pointed out that Sky was just a cosplayer with some interesting tales to spin, but it didn’t make the little rito’s interest any less apparent when Sky started to talk about life on Skyloft.  
  
“Sky was upset earlier this morning, he told me he was homesick.” Wild sipped at his drink, warm and inviting and apple orange flavored.  
  
Another firework echoed in the sky, but at this point the novel had worn off.  
  
“I hope I helped.”  
  
A wing graced his back. “You valways know how to.”  
  
Wild set the empty glass on the banister and set the sheikah slate’s camera in focus. Lazily, snowflakes began to fall from above and lightly coat their faces in an extra layer of chill. Sky stuck his tongue out to catch one and Wild snapped a picture right as the next firework announced itself.  
  
He looked down at the digital image and smiled, reminding himself to get this one developed the next time he landed in Central Hyrule.  
  
Wild spent the rest of the night snapping memories, each new picture sporting new imperfections as his fingers grew lethargic in the drafts and his brain grew fuzzy from tiredness.  
  
Years later—or maybe years before—Link sits up in his academy dormitory and smiles at the string of pictures on the wall. They were marred with burn marks and christened with blurry images of a younger self atop a mountain, surrounded by friends in an artic snow halation. Zelda tells him to go back to bed and rolls over in their warm sheets.  
  
Sky breathes out the gentle cold of winter and does as told.  
  



End file.
